From Charlottesville to Cobourg, free speech walks a …

By |2017-08-18T06:09:03-04:00August 17th, 2017|Categories: business, community, communitywatch, politics, social|Tags: , , , |

fine line between open debate and abusive control (6 minute read) The tragedy in Charlottesville Virginia last week cannot be equated with millions of daily infringements on free speech but its violence exposes the problem of maintaining the fragile balance between two fundamental pillars of democracy: the people's freedom versus the autocrats' control. When free speech turns abusive and Read more...

On Bullshit – a perspicacious, philosophical take on …

By |2017-06-06T11:51:17-04:00June 6th, 2017|Categories: business, communitywatch, politics, social, trumpwatch|Tags: , , , , , |

our society's state of affairs and the President of BS Four things you might not know The author of the bestselling book, On Bullshit is Harry Frankfurt, professor emeritus of philosophy at Princeton University. Frankfurt writes that bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies because eventually the excess of bullshit erodes the practitioner and the society's Read more...

The foxes will never fix the hen house of democracy …

By |2017-03-16T10:38:15-04:00March 15th, 2017|Categories: community, communitywatch, politics, social|Tags: , , , , , |

and the hens will never stop being a bunch of chickens Three things you might not know Why did the turkey cross the road? To prove he wasn't a chicken. But being a bunch of turkeys doesn't get us anywhere either, except over to the other side of the same road, which, as Plato established 2,400 years ago, is Read more...

Why does everyone ignore the numbers …

By |2017-02-13T10:44:41-05:00February 8th, 2017|Categories: business, community, communitywatch, politics, social, trumpwatch|Tags: , , , , |

and the truth about the presidency of the United States and the state of democracy from the largest nations to the smallest communities?   Five things you might not know Donald Trump became the President of the most powerful nation in the world even though only 25% (1-in-4) of American voters voted for him. Of 251 million eligible voters Read more...

Is leadership in full retreat …

By |2017-01-10T07:33:05-05:00January 5th, 2017|Categories: business, community, communitywatch, politics, social|Tags: , , , , , , , |

as speed, complexity and growth trump trust?   Four things you might not know Two-hundred and four years ago, megalomania and narcissism trumped trust in leadership as Napoleon, after ignoring repeated advice against invading Russia, suffered a ruinous retreat, returning with only 40,000 troops out of a Grande Armée of 400,000. Self-interest vs. cooperation is a fundamental dilemma in animal Read more...

Leadership and the power of emulation …

By |2016-12-10T00:40:48-05:00November 25th, 2016|Categories: business, community, communitywatch, politics, social, trumpwatch, trumpwatchhome|Tags: , , , , , , |

 Could Trump's brand of leadership become a problem across  generations of leaders?   Four things you might not know, and one you do We all know Trump is "yuugh" on branding and basks in his monarchy-impersonation of leadership. What we don't know is how four years of it will impact leadership practices everywhere. Research over the last half-century confirms that Read more...

Empires decay from within, from the grassroots …

By |2016-12-10T00:40:49-05:00November 2nd, 2016|Categories: business, communitywatch, politics, social, trumpwatch, trumpwatchhome|Tags: , , , , , |

and small towns are a window onto the state of the nation   Three things you might not know By 2050, 70 percent of the world’s population will be urban. Urbanites are hyper-susceptible to stress and living in cities they can experience anxiety and mood disorders at much higher rates than non-city dwellers. Walmart destroyed 269 small towns when they Read more...

Can farmland save urban renewal?

By |2016-12-10T00:40:55-05:00May 20th, 2014|Categories: communitywatch|Tags: , , , , , , |

They're coming, they're coming ... can the farmers save the urbanites?  As published in Northumberland Today, May 15, 2014 In 1973, Oregon State passed a law to protect farmland and they drew a circle around every town and city in order to curtail urban sprawl. This was at the height of suburbamania when "new towns" were spreading like spilt milk across Read more...

One small step for democracy, one giant leap for Port Hope

By |2016-12-10T00:40:56-05:00April 6th, 2014|Categories: communitywatch|Tags: , , |

Is there hope for democracy in small towns? The metaphor of the moon landing is overused but it seems appropriate for a local historic event that happened just one week after the forty-fifth anniversary of the moon landing (July 20, 1969). That first step was on July 21, 1969 and on July 29, 2014, one small town with a lot Read more...

Community? What is it good for?

By |2016-12-10T00:40:56-05:00November 19th, 2013|Categories: communitywatch|Tags: , , , |

You are part of a community and the sum of the parts is greater than the whole (photo: oneeyeland.com) As published in Northumberland Today Community is a grand word. It’s ubiquitous, universal and everyone innately knows what it means. At first blush, it’s a place, a place we know well, but on deeper reflection it feels more like Read more...

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